「Five days later.」

When Allen opened his eyes again, he was fully revitalized, his Magic Power overflowing.

In his Spiritual World, three slots on the honeycomb-like Permanent Rune Matrix were now filled.

The hand-shaped structure for Craftsman’s Hand, the layered crystalline wall for Magic Shield, and the spiraling, tracking structure for Magic Missile were now deeply bound to his soul, becoming a part of his very instincts.

He had also learned the remaining ten Witchcraft spells, which now lay dormant in his "spell library" alongside the ten cantrips he had previously mastered, ready to be called upon at a moment’s notice.

His theoretical knowledge was complete. Now, it was time for practice.

It was dusk at the flight training grounds.

Dozens of stone pillars of varying heights, wooden dummies for combat practice, and a few moving targets were scattered across the massive field.

The sunset’s afterglow bathed everything in a golden hue, stretching long shadows across the ground.

Allen stepped onto his black "Nightwing III" Hoverboard, steadying his balance.

A stream of pale blue energy shot from the bottom of the board, silently lifting him into the air and accelerating in an instant.

Like a black bolt of lightning skimming the ground, the Hoverboard zipped nimbly through the intricate array of stone pillars, kicking up a powerful slipstream.

His primary consciousness was completely immersed in controlling his balance and the board’s trajectory, reveling in the thrill of high-speed maneuvering.

The intense wind pressure slammed against him, causing his Apprentice Robe to whip and snap in the air.

As he banked around a stone pillar, a command had already formed in his mind.

A giant, transparent hand composed of pure force materialized instantly to his right. Its five fingers spread wide, precisely grabbing a training dummy that blocked his path.

The dummy, made of hardwood, let out a cringe-inducing "CREAK" under the hand’s immense force as it was effortlessly lifted into the air.

Without pause, the Hoverboard zipped past a stone pillar with the dummy in tow, then viciously slammed it onto the ground.

His first mental thread instantly dismissed Craftsman’s Hand and switched to Magic Missile.

Three egg-sized missiles glowing with pure energy materialized from thin air. They traced three cunning arcs, weaving around the stone pillars to strike the fallen dummy simultaneously from three different directions.

"BANG! BANG! BANG!"

The three impacts sounded as one, and the dummy was blown to smithereens.

The entire sequence was perfectly fluid.

High-speed movement, a grapple-and-throw, and a remote targeted strike—three completely different actions, all executed by a single person in an incredibly short time, with no hesitation or conflict between them.

His primary consciousness handled positioning and evasion like an agile assassin.

A secondary thread handled attacks and control, like a gun turret with a god’s-eye view.

This was the prototype of his "Aerial Engagement and Strike Tactic."

The Hoverboard was the "vehicle," providing unparalleled mobility. Craftsman’s Hand was the "close-quarters combat and defense unit," responsible for blocking, disarming, and control. Magic Missile was the "ranged fire support," responsible for suppression and pinpoint elimination.

Magic Shield, cast pre-combat, required no effort to maintain and provided 360-degree protection.

He was a high-speed, mobile battle fortress with integrated offense and defense.

Allen reveled in this newfound sense of control over his power.

He began attempting more complex maneuvers.

While flying at high speed, he had Craftsman’s Hand break off a chunk of stone from a crumbling pillar and hurl it with astonishing speed, precisely shattering the head of another dummy.

At the same time, he devoted a fraction of his focus to maintaining Detect Magic Power, allowing the flow of Magic Power for hundreds of meters around him to appear clearly in his perception.

This multitasking ability demonstrated a combat potential that far exceeded that of a newly promoted Advanced Apprentice.

While Allen trained diligently in mid-air, a young woman stood quietly in the shadows at the edge of the training grounds, clutching a thick notebook.

She wore the Wizard Robe of a Mind School Advanced Apprentice, which was embroidered with the emblem of a spiraling eye.

She had a slender figure and rare, moon-white hair. But most striking were her eyes. They were like kaleidoscopes sprinkled with crushed diamonds, so brilliantly colorful that they concealed her true eye color.

In her vision, the world was not composed of matter, but of a vibrant tapestry of interwoven emotions and colors.

On the training grounds, the apprentices sparring and practicing their Witchcraft all radiated auras of fiery emotion.

The competitive radiated a glaring scarlet, the nervous an agitated bright yellow, and the jealous a murky, gray-green.

Staring at these violent, chaotic emotional colors for too long always left her feeling drained.

But today, she saw an outlier.

The figure zipping around on the black Hoverboard appeared in her "emotional-spectrum vision" as a vast, deep blue ocean of ultimate calm.

The blue was pure and stable; neither his high-speed maneuvers nor his fierce attacks caused the slightest ripple.

What fascinated her even more were the countless slender, silver data streams of pure logic flickering in the depths of that blue ocean, rapidly interweaving and reorganizing.

There was no anger, no passion, no killing intent.

There was only cold calculation and absolute reason.

This was completely different from the combat style of any Wizard she had ever seen.

The power of others was like an erupting volcano, wild and fiery. His power, however, was like a precision astrolabe, each turn of its gears filled with a cold, orderly, and strangely beautiful aesthetic.

The sight was both bizarre and, to Lina, unprecedentedly... harmonious.

She unconsciously took a few steps forward, wanting a clearer view.

Allen, who was in the middle of extreme evasion training, suddenly faltered in his movements.

His Detect Magic Power had caught a faint anomaly.

At the edge of the training grounds, a gaze focused by Spiritual Power had been fixed on him for over five minutes.

The gaze held no malice, but its focused, probing intensity was impossible to ignore.

[Witchcraft sensor has detected sustained observation. Target’s Spiritual Power fluctuation frequency is unknown. Identity is unknown. Recommend disengaging from the current environment.]

The alert from DSeek rang in his mind.

Allen tensed.

’He hated unplanned variables, and this feeling of being watched made him deeply uncomfortable.’

When he activated Enhanced Senses (Vision) to find the source of the gaze, he only caught a glimpse of a blurry figure flashing away.

Acting as if nothing had happened, he completed one last maneuver, then smoothly decreased the Hoverboard’s speed and flew off toward the dormitories.

’Was it a mentor who just happened to be passing by? Another apprentice interested in my combat style? Or...’

’When faced with an unknown observer, the optimal choice is to disengage and avoid revealing any more information.’

Lina watched as the figure departed without a backward glance, disappearing around the corner of a building. A hint of disappointment flickered in her eyes.

She glanced down at the notebook in her arms. Its pages were filled with complex symbols drawn in ink, each one representing a different emotion.

She picked up her pen, and on a fresh page, she drew a deep blue background, then embellished it with countless intersecting silver threads.

Allen returned to his dorm room, and the metal door slid shut behind him.

He immediately activated the room’s isolation Runes to ensure there would be no further spying. He was just about to consider how he might acquire some means of concealing his presence when his personal terminal chimed softly.

It was a system notification from the academy’s administration center.

[NOTICE: The final registration deadline for the Advanced Apprentice Annual Compulsory Mission is in 15 days.]

[Those who fail to accept and complete a mission by the deadline will be automatically assigned a ’High-Risk Cleanup Mission’ by the system.]